Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair. Those are the words of the Taoiseach. During the 2011 election campaign, the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, promised not to introduce a family home tax on residential homes. He said, "We have to remember that many people have already paid a family home tax on their residential home in the form of stamp duty". Shame on the Taoiseach and Tánaiste for betraying the Irish people, who trusted them to live up to the commitments and promises they made. They rode into office on the back of those promises and they are now content to break them.

Today the Government is breaking these promises and there is only one appropriate word - hypocrisy. Those in the Government are hypocrites. Hundreds of thousands of families will be unable to pay this tax. Many more who will be forced to pay it will be pushed further into financial stress or poverty. The proposal will also hurt the economy because it will take money from people's pockets which they would otherwise spend in the local economy every day. Taking this from the pockets and cash tills in the local shop, grocer or barber, there will be a resulting cost in jobs. This tax is anti-family and anti-jobs.

We are talking about people’s homes. The Government has called it a property tax but property is everything: it is houses, shares, horses and yachts. This tax is on people’s homes, and people need their homes. It is not a luxury.

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